Build a Monument

Build a Monument by Tom Rossi

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

How many of y'all were at the service this morning? A few, a few, a few. Just feeling like There's just been some incredible stuff going on at the church. Some incredible progress that the kingdom of God is making that we're seeing at River City Church. Just people being freed up. People coming into their identity and who they are in Christ. And that is met with resistance. And that's kind of what we talked about this morning. And tonight what I want to do is talk about how we can get to that place of worship. Seriously, JB? Seriously. How many are you going to open over there? So it's getting to that place of remembering what God has done in our life so that we worship him. Because when we worship him, other things just fade away. And when we focus on praising Jesus, we just find that the trials and the things that we face, they just, they don't compare. When we can understand and comprehend what God has done in our life, when we can worship him for that. So let's pray right now that his Holy Spirit would just come and that he would be speaking to all of us. I pray specifically that he would have something for each individual, something specific for you. God, I pray that you would come tonight and that you would remind us of the things that you've done. Bring us to that place where we knew it was you. We knew that there was something that you did in our life and it was undeniable to our very essence. I pray that you would bring us to that place tonight, by the end of this talk, that you would remind us of that thing that you did or that time in our life. I pray in Jesus' name. You know, it's funny. I always make jokes. I always make jokes with my friends about the Old Testament, about how, you know, I don't read the Old Testament. I read the New Testament because, you know, I don't want to live under law and stuff. But it's a joke. It's a joke. The Old Testament is good. And the Old Testament is especially good at revealing the character of God and the character of man. And I think the story of the Israelites in Exodus, I think tells us a lot about our human nature and also the nature of God. Let's take a look at Exodus 3, 7 and 8. So the Israelites are in captivity. This is when they're still in captivity in Egypt. And the Lord said, So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Cool picture of God saying, you know what? Enough is enough. I am going to come down and I am going to deliver my people. I'm going to be the one to make this happen in a very powerful and miraculous way. And so that's where, you know, all of the stuff went down with Moses and the plagues and getting Pharaoh finally to break and to let them go. And it was a costly process for the Egyptians, but in the end, they let him go. And so here are the Jews who had no hope of just being let go. I mean, that wasn't going to happen on their own. And they witnessed these incredible miracles, these incredible plagues, these incredible events that happened that eventually lead to something that is totally crazy. They're let go. They're just let go. But that's not enough, right?

UNKNOWN 3:57

Right?

SPEAKER_00 3:57

They get away, and then the Pharaoh's like, you know, maybe it was just a bad week. Maybe all these plagues, it was just a coincidence, whatever. He says, you know what, forget it. Let's go back and get them. And so he sends his army after the Jews to get them and bring them back. He changed his mind. Do you know what they said when they saw the armies coming? You'd think, I mean, that was huge that they've already witnessed this great event that they'd go, man, if you're coming after us now, you are in for it because God is in the place and it's not going to be good for you. But no, this is what they said. Exodus 14, 11 through 12. They said to Moses, was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians. It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert. Here's God. He comes down to deliver them in a powerful, miraculous way, undeniable way. And they've already begun to lose faith. They've been brought out. And now they see the armies coming against them and it's like they've forgotten where they just were. They would rather be slaves. And then we know what happens, right? God parts the Red Sea. They're totally enclosed. There's like nowhere for them to go when they make this claim to Moses. There's no way. There's no way for us to get out of this thing. And then God's like, but hold on. And he parts the Red Sea. And then they walk through On dry land. And then the Egyptians come after them and the Red Sea closes and takes them all out. Not a good day for the Egyptians. But you'd think it's a good day for the Jews, right? So you'd think, man, if you witnessed that, just think about that for a second. If you witnessed that. Imagine, I don't know what movies you've seen. The Ten Commandments, The Prince of Egypt. I don't know if you've ever seen a movie that shows it. But try to imagine, to fathom this miracle that takes place. It's not just that, hey, oh, there's dry land for us to walk on. There's dry land, they walk across, and then the dry land closes and takes out all the guys that are coming after them. Imagine, if you can, just imagine how awesome and incredible that would be. You think that would empower you for the rest of your life? Do you think that that would provide a faith-building experience for you? That you would be like, man, that's it. I'm good to go. Do you know how long it took before they started to grumble again? This freaked me out. Because I was thinking, you know, everything in the Bible is like 40 days. I'm thinking 40 days maybe before they started to grumble. Three days! Three days later! They don't have enough water and they start to like, God, have you thought this thing through? Are you sure you've thought this thing through? What are we going to drink? So it's only three days and you think to yourself, well, I don't know if that's me. I don't know if this is even believable. But think back right now. Try to remember if you were ever backed against a wall to a place where there was just no way out. There's no way it's going to happen. And God made a way. Think about that time in your life. Certainly in our own sinfulness. Certainly in Christ we have that. Certainly in Christ we have that. You know, there was nothing we could do. We were totally on our own, totally lost. The only way it was going to happen is if God himself did something. And he did. And he saved us. He made a way where there wasn't a way. But what about something specific in your life? Something where God changed the unchangeable. Something changed. Maybe it was something in your relationships. Maybe it was something in your personality. Maybe it was something in circumstances. But it was a time where God changed the unchangeable or he moved the unmovable. Maybe it's forgiving the unforgivable in you or moving in you to forgive somebody else something that was unforgivable. But I want you to try and reflect on that tonight. And I would imagine that any one of us could have a story to share. We didn't do testimonies because we're going to do testimonies at the end with the idea that remember your stories. That's why testimonies are so important because there's something about standing up in front of people and saying, this is what God has done that solidifies it in us. And it also provides our friends and the people that encourage us with the knowledge of what God has done so that when we do begin to face circumstances and begin to grumble, they go, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't you remember when he parted the Red Sea? Don't you remember when he did this thing in your life? When you stood up in front of the church and you said how God showed up? It's our human nature to forget. It's our human nature to dismiss over time. So when you think about that, when you think about that time in your life, I think some of the most powerful moments in my life, I think are pretty personal in the way that God did it. In other words, if I were to share it with somebody, they would be like, oh, that's nice. Like, oh, that's a nice coincidence. But you know It carries a real personal authority in your life. And at the time, it moved you to a place that you couldn't have gotten to with coincidence. You know what I mean? It was something that happened in your life, and some of them are not personal. Some of them are huge. They're things that we get to hear about in testimonies all the time. But some of the ones that I was thinking about in my own life, they were real personal, where if I were to share them with somebody, they'd go, oh, that's a good coincidence. But we knew at the time, it moved us to a place. And you're like, whoa. Sometimes it's like a fear, like a reverent fear. Like maybe you said a prayer and then it happened and you're like, uh, didn't see that coming. And it gets you to just this place of awe and like, man, that's weird. But it's not, it's awesome. And sometimes it moves us to a place of love. Man, we just love God. Our response to that thing that he does is that we just love him. We're like, man, God is so awesome. I can't believe he just did that thing. We heard a testimony this morning of a girl who's been trying to get pregnant for the longest time. Doctor said it's not gonna happen. Boom, she gets pregnant. And her response, love. Her response is like, God is so awesome that he would do that for me, that he would care enough to answer this desire in my life. Thankfulness and worship. to worship him, to recognize that he is the one in control. He is the one that makes the things happen. Ultimately, he's the one. And so all of this, the Jews have this great, very huge thing that they can point to. He parted the Red Sea. Like, there wasn't a way. And so what do they do? After three days... um they say this exodus 15 24 the people grumbled against moses saying what are we to drink you know we didn't bring enough canteens or something do you know what god did like if you're god you'd have to be a little torqued off right like seriously guys you don't think i can handle like water you know and they come to a place there's these springs and uh And the water must be bad or something like that. And whatever God says, you know what? Moses, take a piece of wood, throw it in the water, and I'm going to turn it into sweet water. Not just water. Not just water that you can drink and sustain your life. Sweet water. And so he does that. And you think, okay, surely now, you know, water's nasty. Moses throws a stick in the water. Now it's all sweet and tasty. You'd think, oh, yeah, right. Now he's got him. No. No. They grumble again. Like, is this, you see a pattern here? And what's amazing is the next time, the next time they grumble, they go, we were better off in Egypt. We were better off as slaves. We were better off, you know why? Because we got to eat meat. Seriously? Like that's the thing that comes to mind for you? See, do you know what God does? Again, I'd be holding on to the lightning bolt. You know what I mean? I'd be like, okay, I'm gonna start over. I'm gonna start over. All right, pick off a couple, you know, just enough. Just enough to show them, hey, I'll take you out. All right? But what does God do? He sends them quail. He sends them quail. Every night they would have quail for dinner. Seriously, this is the God that we serve. He'd give them bread in the morning and he'd give them quail at night. There's a great song, probably nobody knows, the 77s. There's a band, they have a song, God Sends Quail. And it's great because he just talks about that's God's, our response is to forget what God does. And his response is to send quail. We grumble, he sends quail. That's kind of the pattern that we see in the Old Testament. That's kind of the pattern that we see in our own lives that we forget. And we begin to say, God, where are you? I thought you loved me. I thought all these great things. Forgetting the stuff that he's already done in our life. Like he's not going to provide in the circumstances that we're in now. But what does he do time and time again? Sends quail. They start to say things like, you know, When the Red Sea parted, you know, the winds were blowing pretty hard. It was really kind of shallow anyways. You know, was it really God? And over time, they just start to, you know, dismiss it. And for us, we run the same tendency as to think, you know, maybe that really wasn't God. We need to remember God sets it up that way. What does he do? He's constantly telling them, hey, I got an idea, guys. Oh, I don't know. Build a memorial. Put something up. Take some rocks and make them in a little pile. Why? Is it because it's some magic in the monument that they're building? No, because he's doing it because they'll forget. Hey, I got an idea, guys. Why don't you throw a party every year and remember what I did? Why? He's trying to get them to remember. And even in Jesus, we see it with the Last Supper. With him saying, as often as you get together and you do this, remember. Remember the blood that was shed. Remember the love that the Father had for you. God asks us to remember all the time. It's an appeal. When he introduces himself, I love it. He'll introduce himself in such a way, hey, I'm the God who delivers you out of Egypt. Just in case you're thinking I'm another God or you get confused, I'm the God who delivers you out of Egypt. You see that all the time in the Old Testament. Whenever he introduced himself, he wouldn't just say, I am God. He would, you know, have a little tagline to remember them, remind them of the things that he's done. We all have these opportunities. So, okay, what's the point? What's the point of all this? Well, I can tell you what isn't the point. It's not to guilt you. We shouldn't feel guilty about that. We just need to recognize it. God doesn't want us, he doesn't lord these things over us. It's not like he's saying, hey, if I want to throw some, you know, crap food on the menu for tonight, I gave you quail for a while. He's not trying to guilt them. He's not trying to say, you guys should stop grumbling. I mean, if it was me... I'd be guilt in him a little bit, a little bit. I'd be like, you know, the mom who wants to, you know, make him feel just a little bit guilty for complaining. God doesn't want us to feel guilty. He wants us to feel freedom. He wants us to remember the love that he has for us. He doesn't say, I'm the God who did this, so you better do this. I'm the God who delivers you out of Egypt, so you better listen to me. That's not the language that we see him using. He's just reminding them I'm the God who loves you. I'm the God that delivers you out of Egypt. I've got your best interest at heart. Trust me. Remember what I've already done in your life. Have faith that I'm good. God does these works and it's a confirmation of what God's already doing around us. Many times the monument that we're to build or the event, the monumental event that occurs is to confirm something God's already doing. And he wants us to recognize that God is on the move, that he's in our lives. And just if for a split second, we can comprehend the reality of how much he loves us, the extent that he's willing to go to to rescue us. James talks about looking in a mirror and then walking away and forgetting what we look like. You know, this idea that we would read in the scriptures the good things that God has done and then just walk away and forget. It's our human nature to do that. Tonight, what are you holding back from God? What is it that you haven't trusted him with? What limitation have you placed on him, on what he might do? Think about it. They were like, oh God, what are we going to drink tonight? They were limiting him. He couldn't do that. Seriously? Of all the things that you've seen him do, what limitation do we have on God in our own lives that we haven't dared trust him with? What is it that you want God to do today? Where are you looking for God to move? What have you settled for? Have you settled for just the good when God's got great for you? Have you settled for just, oh, there's a lot of coincidences in my life when really there's a God who loves you and these things are actually part of a bigger plan, bigger purpose? I want us to reflect on that. And what we'll do is we're going to have a time to worship. And during this song, I want you to try and remember in your own lives those monuments that you would build, those things that God has done that you need to remember. Maybe it's something that you journaled about. Maybe it was something that you told your friends about, but then you felt silly and now time has gone by and you've totally just dismissed it as coincidence. I want you to think about those and we'll have an opportunity for some of you to come forward and to share some of those if you want to. Again, it might be a personal thing for you. Don't feel like you need to come up and share

UNKNOWN 19:36

it.